Recording - May 2011 - 72

under an assumed name, and worked on countless other albums for the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Linda Perry, and Keith Emerson—just to name a few. This gifted and unique individual passed away in 1996 at the age of 29. After his death, his estate, along with Nick D’Virgilio and John Cuniberti, pieced together his final work and what would be regarded as his masterpiece: a rock opera called The Shaming of the True. A biting commentary, Shaming portrays the music industry as seen through the eyes of an aspiring young rock musician named Johnny Virgil. The first time I heard the album was around 1998, before it was actually released. Producer and engineer Ronnie Brookshire had been given a copy of some board mixes and wanted me to hear it while we were on a five-hour car ride together. We played it over and over again—and I still have his CD...

Guest editorial by Mark Hornsby

Who On Earth Was Kevin Gilbert?
It’s so deep on many levels, to this day I still go through phases of listening to it, with a different perspective each and every time. Now, for the first time in over 10 years, his estate is re-releasing the album this spring. The new version is re-mastered and includes additional tracks that feature some alternate mixes and newly recorded orchestrations by yours truly. It was an unexpected treat to be a part of an album I’ve been listening to for over a decade. One of many people’s favorites (and mine) off the album is a song called “A Long Day’s Life”. Through an interesting chain of events and with the help of an arranger (and good friend of mine) John Hinchey, I was able to replace Kevin’s synth parts with a 48-piece orchestra at Abbey Road’s Studio 1. This involved baking and transferring tapes, creating a click track to an eightminute song for an orchestra to play to (did I mention Kevin rarely used a click?), scoring the entire song for the orchestra, and then recording and mixing the whole thing. To hear this song come alive with a full orchestra behind it was simply amazing. Nick D’Virgilio was on tour in London when I was there recording, and he stopped by during the session. “Kevin was indeed an extremely versatile musician,” says Nick, “So much so that it blew me away when I first started to hang out with him. He knew so much about so many different kinds of music and he could play in the different styles in a way that sounded real. It was just so natural for him and to me that was what made his music so passionate. When I got to go to Abbey Road and heard “A Long Day’s Life” with that amazing orchestra it almost brought me to tears. It was so beautiful sounding. Kevin unfortunately never got to hear his song completely finished. I am sure he would have absolutely loved it.” Jon Rubin, who was Kevin’s friend, manager and now executor of his estate, went on to say: “I have worked with many talented musicians over my 40-year career but I can only use this word for Kevin... genius. The new issue of The Shaming of the True with bonus tracks is going to be a musthave for all Kevin Gilbert fans.” So, if you already knew some of Kevin’s music, hopefully I’ve turned you onto to some new things to check out. If you didn’t know who he was, look him up. I think you’ll be glad you did. As musicians, engineers and producers, I think a lot of us enjoy finding a piece of music, or a song, or an album that not only makes us smile, but excites us when we have the chance to share it with others and see their reaction. For me, Kevin Gilbert’s music always does the trick.

If you know who he was, chances are good you own everything he recorded. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, it only takes a minute to recognize his work. He performed, recorded and released albums while still in high school, but he first came to some prominence with Giraffe, a San Francisco band that won an international talent contest sponsored by Yamaha in 1988. From there, he went on to become frontman and cowriter of Toy Matinee, a Patrick Leonard collaboration that studios the world over play alongside albums like Steely Dan’s Aja to show off their rooms and/or speakers to potential clients. This spawned a relationship with the producer Bill Bottrell, which later led to him being a principal musician/co-writer in “Tuesday Night Music Club”, the L.A. group of musicians who spawned the 1993 Sheryl Crow album of the same name. He released a solo album called Thud in which he performed, engineered and produced almost everything entirely by himself. He co-wrote the hit song “Come What May” from Moulin Rouge, composed TV and movie soundtracks
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For more information on Kevin Gilbert, check out www.kevingilbert.com. Mark Hornsby (hornsby@recordingmag.com) is a producer/engineer based out of Java Jive Studio in Nashville, TN. For more information, head over to www.markhornsby.com.

http://www.kevingilbert.com http://www.markhornsby.com

Recording - May 2011

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